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Eric Froidmont presents Poster 57 during the poster sessions in the Aula.
Session theme 6: Free topics
129
Poster 57
EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOUR AND THE STRESS EXPERIENCED
BY DAIRY HEIFERS AT FIRST CALVING
E. Froidmont 1 , J. Sulon 2 , N. Bartiaux-Thill 1
1 Animal Production and Nutrition Department, Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Gembloux, Belgium
2 Departement of Functional Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medecine, Liège University, Liège, Belgium
The aim of this pre-study was to evaluate the stress experienced by heifers at first calving and the
need to integrate these animals into the dairy herd before this critical period.
The experiment was conducted on 4 animals (two groups of two synchronized heifers). One heifer
of each group was introduced for 10 days into the dairy herd, 1 month before the expected calving
date; the other one remained with the young animals. After calving (d0), the behaviour of the
animals was observed at the beginning (d1–d7) and at the end (d78–d85) of the experiment from
8h00 to 16h00 (1 photograph every 5 minutes). The cortisol content was measured in the milk and
saliva samples taken on d1 to d14, d27–d28, d59–d60 and d82–d85.
The data were analysed using Minitab’s GLM procedure, with ‘treatment’, ‘day after calving’ and
‘group’ as the main effects. The means were compared using the Tukey test.
The results suggest that the integrated animals spent more time lying down (29 vs 19% of the time,
p=0.002) and remained for longer in the straw area (53 vs 34% of the time, P < 0.001) at the
beginning of the experiment compared with the non-integrated animals. This difference cannot be
fully attributed to the integration because the live weight of integrated animals at calving was 20%
higher.
The cortisol content in saliva was lower for integrated animals (73.6 vs 93.0 ng/ml, p=0.011) on d1
to d7, and similar to non-integrated animals afterwards. No significant difference was observed in
milk cortisol content.
Behaviour and saliva cortisol results suggested that heifers did not experienced the same level of
stress with integration into the dairy herd prior to calving but this needs to be confirmed by a largerscale
study.
Contact information: Eric Froidmont or email froidmont@cra.wallonie.be
Complete address: Rue de Liroux 8 5030 Gembloux Belgium
Species: Dairy cattle